Life and Politics in Michigan
He studied law while working at the law firm of his brother, George W. Wisner, and Rufus Hosmer. In 1841, he was admitted to the bar at Pontiac and then moved to the village of Lapeer, Michigan to began to a practice. He was appointed prosecuting attorney for Lapeer County in 1843 by Governor William Woodbridge. He moved back to Pontiac to join a law firm there.
Wisner was not especially active in politics until after the election of U.S. President Franklin Pierce in 1852, when he became active in the anti-slavery movement. He was one of the foremost critics in Michigan of the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 which repealed the Missouri Compromise and opened the territories to slavery. He participated in the first convention of the U.S. Republican Party in Jackson, Michigan in July, 1854 where he declined nomination as Michigan Attorney General. That same year he was an unsuccessful candidate from Michigan's 4th congressional district to the U.S. House against Democrat George Washington Peck.
In 1858, Wisner was elected the 12th Governor of Michigan by a large majority and served one term from 1859 to 1861. After his term was over he returned to his home in Pontiac and resumed the practice of law.
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